It Starts

Ok, so I'm last minute but who cares right because the only person waiting on me is me. So I'll start this blog out with the answer to the question that everyone will ask when they happen to find this site, and the answer is "because you have nothing better to do but daydream!" The question, for those of you who couldn't tell was "Why add this to your favorites?" Don't get upset! I only say it the way I see it and it's not personal. I am risking everything I have to travel the world and become the only person in my family to become a “digital nomad” and up to this point in my life, I have never been paid to write anything nor have I made any “real” money of my gaming network. So if for no other reason than the fact that I have either giant brass balls or I'm the dumbest most naive person on the planet.

I truly feel that with the right mind set you can make it anywhere. The United States may have been the “promise land” or the “land of opportunity” but it's not the only place you can find opportunity. It all depends on what you are looking for and perspective, for me it's all about opening my eyes to the world around me. I have wanted to travel the world since my first taste at 14 when I took a church trip to Monterrey Mexico. That first trip gave me a bug that I have never been able to get rid of. I joined the military and get another taste of it but I was married to a woman that wanted to stay close to home so I moved back home. Times have changed and the world is even smaller now that I'm in my mid 30's and I have realized one fact that makes life very, very hard on me, I'm fucking lazy! Pardon the rough language but I can't be nice about that, I have taken a good long look at my life, accomplishments and future possibilities and to be honest with you it was pretty depressing. I have done a little of this, a little of that and a lot of nothing! I was a welder out of high school but I would have had to travel to make real money in that job but I would have had to travel alone and the ex wasn't having any of that. Then I joined the military, we knew I'd have to travel and be away but it would only be a "short" time and it was a small sacrifice we would make to ensure college money, health care for the kids and security for my family if anything did happen. Those were a great 4 years but to be honest, I would have only stayed in if I could have gotten an easier job than a mechanic (it’s not that I’m lazy, it’s that in the military the three toughest jobs were cook, cop and mechanic because none of us got any sleep) and they if they would have sent me to Germany but they wouldn't give me both so I got out. My ex joined the Air Force shortly after I left the Army (I won't try to explain all the questions this posting will leave you with, but know that not all of my decisions were effective in creating the outcome I had intended.) After the divorce I moved back home to San Antonio where I met the woman of my dreams. If this was a romance blog I would add in all the details but to keep from boring my readers we will just say that I found a beautiful and great woman that I don't deserve but I wouldn't give up to save my life.

My wife "brownie" is much like I am as in she is a nomadic soul, always looking for a change intrigued by new things and always ready to learn something else. She was born and raised in Guadalajara Mexico and came to the United States to study English. To my surprise my lovely wife is much smarter than her beautiful green eyes tell, she learned English in 6 months, which to me was amazing considering she couldn't complete a sentence in English when we met. Brownie brought out this trapped soul of a traveler that I had buried so deep once I started having children. My youngest daughter is 14 and if I could be an active participant in her life then I would stay in the states until she turned 18 but I'm not, so we're leaving. Brownie and I have been on the move since we met. I had a really nice job at the cable company when she and I hatched (Well actually her dad was in the business and brought it up to me) an idea to import silver jewelry to the states from Mexico and wholesale the jewelry to mom and pop businesses.

We gave up our apartment, second car, all of our home furnishings, everything! We sold everything then turned around and put every cent we had into jewelry and we were going to make it or break it. To be honest with you, we found out there was another option too, survive and have fun. I have been to 27 of the lower 48 states and 7 different countries and I have made up my mind that I will not stop moving until I have been to every country (wonder if I'll ever get to Cuba) in the world. All of the things I saw, people I met and things I did are all just a memory for me and some are slowly fading from my memory too which for my family early memory loss is normal.

So this blog will be my journal to document my travels and to keep safe the memories that I am so prone to forgetting like names, dates and images. I was born in an insignificant little town in the heart of east Texas, raised on a farm to be nothing more than a good salt of the earth hard working man. I feel that after all this time I have lost that direction, the one my father tried to point me in when I was a child. My father may have been a redneck hippy which may sound like a contradiction of terms but it's true. He worked hard and smoked a lot of weed. I have fought being like my father my whole life, I always felt that I didn't have to have a job where I get blisters, sweat or break my back unless it was something I enjoyed. So at this point I realized I have wasted space, time and energy in this life. I don't have a child that depends on my care and support any longer so I am going to expand my mind to its limits. I am going to be a full time travel blogger. I am going to be a digital nomad. I am going to be a full time webmaster. I am going! This is my motto! This is my creed! Follow along and see how my roller coaster rolls!

First step towards becoming a Digital Nomad

Ok, well here I am sitting in the garage of my wife's aunt blogging about how I am off to travel the world, write about it, and build my online business to become something more than just a hobby. This is my first phase of becoming a digital nomad. My wife has sold nearly everything we own minus my T.V and the bed but they will go soon. We haven't sold our truck yet either which is stress inducing. Money is the root of all evil but it is needed when you want to leave your home and travel. I am learning what the phrase "necessary evil" means, because when most people decide to do something like this they save money and a lot of it but me... I like doing things the hard way I think because I got fired six weeks before we had planned to leave. I haven't gotten any unemployment, not another job, not even part time work. All the money we have is what little savings my wife and I had (which wasn't the three months of bills that most financial guys say you need to have either) our tax refund (which is small when you don't have any children and you don't make six figures) and the money from all of our household goods and Brownie's clothing. So the truck selling and making a little money on it would ease some of our money worries, so hopefully it will sell soon. It's not like it's a piece of junk either. It's a 2007 Toyota FJ, bright yellow and I love it but apparently not everyone does so it has taken a lot longer than I had hoped. I have been pressuring Brownie about buying the plane tickets even if the truck hasn't sold yet because it is inevitable that it will sell it's just a matter of time. I've got my fingers crossed that I'll finally buy them tomorrow.

"Buying plane tickets is an art form if you like to be frugal. The fact of the matter is that you have to put in time to find cheap flights, and I don't mean you have to buy the tickets one or more months in advance, I mean that you have to look at ticket prices from every website you can find every couple of days for months."

Seriously!!!

So now we have all of the boxes filled with our "sentimental" items saved at my daughters house here in San Antonio. I used the word sentimental but what I mean to say is shit. I love my wife but she is attached to a lot more things than just me, she really doesn't like to be limited clothing selection either which has stressed her out with this move to Europe. This is something I will have to write a post about but more in depth because I am sure there are a lot of people that have this fear as well so we will see how she handles it. She has faced this challenge once before, when we first got married I bought into the silver jewelry business like her father and we traveled for two years living out of our 2002 Nissan Sentra. This will be even harder for her since we are starting out as “helpers” on an amazing site called HelpX (go to this site to understand how we plan to live for the next few months) which means we will be staying in people's homes and traveling using busses, trains and taxis. Did I mention that my wife is a shop-a-holic? Again, this topic will be a more in depth posting to help people like my wife to see how to live the way you want in every way.

The hardest part about this trip so far has been dealing with my wife's fear. She has stressed out about money and to be honest with you she has the reason, we don't really have a lot of money and we are risking everything so maybe I'm the one that is crazy because I am so ready for this that I almost drool. I am so hungry for a life with more meaning. We really wanted to travel but couldn't afford to live out of hotels or hostels for that matter, so we looked for alternative means. Websites like Work-A-Way and HelpX are exactly that, alternatives. These sites connect people from around the world to help each other and exchange services. For example; “Jean in France just bought an old farm home and they want to convert it to a bed and breakfast style hotel so they post that they need help. These people are called hosts. Other people looking to visit France will see the posting and if they have any of the skills that Jean needs help with they start communicating with Jean and eventually become helpers.” This is our cheap way of traveling in Italy for the next six months. During which time I will work on this blog and hopefully entertaining as many people as I can along the way. My goal is to become financially secure through my gaming network and blogs. I never thought I was a good writer but I have learned that blogging isn't writing in the literal term. Journalists apparently aren't fond of bloggers that think they are journalists and visa versa, but what do I know? Up until this point I didn't have a dog in the hunt.

Today is the 18th of April and I want to buy our plane tickets today for the 1st or 2nd of May, let's see if that happens. The plan is to meet up with Brownie's brother who lives in Ireland right now. He wants to meet up with us as soon as we get there because he is moving back to Mexico in July and we haven't seen him since he moved to Ireland two years ago. Right now I want to meet him in Dublin and then fly to Rome Italy and meet up with our first “host family” which is also our first job. We start our first summer camp job in Italy on the Adriatic coast the third week of May and we'll be there until the last day of June. Our job at the summer camp is supposed to be teaching Italian children to speak English. Brownie and I are bringing our favorite game, Catch Phrase to play with the children and help make learning English fun during summer so we're super excited.

So here we go... We're nervous, excited and even a little scared but fear is a healthy response when you put every dollar your worth at risk. What's the payoff you may ask, well let's ask that question again in another six months.